CATHOLIC WRITERS GUILD SEAL OF APPROVAL AWARD

We are pleased to announce that our book, 95 Questions for Protestants, was honored to receive the coveted Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval. We thought it would be interesting for our readers to know the criteria for this award for Catholic authors. We encourage all our readers to seek out quality books, whether fiction or non-fiction, that hold to this stringent a criteria.

FROM THE CATHOLIC WRITER’s GUILD WEBSITE: “The Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval assists Catholic bookstores and venues in identifying works that they can offer without hesitation in terms of both Catholicity and editorial integrity.”

CATHOLIC WRITERS GUILD SEAL OF APPROVAL

The Criteria
Our evaluators award the Seal of Approval based on a number of criteria.
Books apply for the Seal of Approval when ALL of the conditions below
are met:
*Book is published OR will be self-published OR book is under contract
with a publisher
*Author must be Catholic
*Book is Catholic in nature (for fiction, this means Catholic themes and
characters)
*Book does not contradict nor disparage Catholic teaching
*Book does not speak disparagingly of an accepted Catholic practice
(such as Novus Ordo Mass or Tridentine Mass) nor give the impression
that only a particular Catholic practice is the right way to salvation.
*Book does not support heresies or New Age philosophies
*Book is Catholic in nature/intention. I intend to market my book to
Catholic bookstores and believe it is suited for them.

Below are some additional parameters we use when determining Seal of
Approval eligibility for a book. If the answer to any of the below
questions is “yes,” your book may not be eligible or be awarded the Seal
of Approval:

Is the work libelous or slanderous?
*Does the work seek to foster hatred or conflict among individuals or
groups, including racism, religious fanaticism, or anarchy?
*Does this work contain obscenity or promote anti-Catholic views of
modesty, decency in language, actions, or basic morality?
*Does this work contain pornography?
*Does this work promote premarital, extramarital, or other non-marital
sexual relationships?
*Does this work lack respect for the reasonable privacy of others?
*Does this work degrade the dignity of the person, including the
promotion of euthanasia, abortion, homosexual actions or unions, child
labor, or prostitution?
*Does this work promote the worship of false gods?
*Does this work attempt to draw others away from the orthodox teachings
of the universal Catholic Church?
*Does this work use others’ proposals or ideas without credit or
permission?
*Does this work present others’ work as the author’s own original ideas?
*Does this work violate any known laws?
*Does the author of this work belong to an association(s) or participate
in activities that may compromise integrity, damage credibility, or
cause scandal in the Guild’s sole determination that you are aware of?
*Examples include freemasonry, Catholics for a Free Choice, NAMBLA, a
history of works opposed to the Guild’s values or ethics,
excommunication, etc. For example, these may be stated on the book
jacket or may be from your prior knowledge of the author.
*Is this work so badly written or edited that granting the Seal of
Approval would harm the reputation of the Catholic Writers Guild as a
writers organization?
*This book would not be appropriate for your local Catholic bookstore.
*Does this work contain more than one obvious grammatical/usage error,
typo, or misspelling for every 20,000 words?